Amitabh Bachchan on how poverty touched India's richest show

Amitabh Bachchan is all set to woe the audience once again with the seventh edition of ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ which now plays for higher stakes with a whopping amount of Rs7seven. He talks about his journey so far and his take on the popular games show.

Did you expect ‘KBC’ to run for so long? To which, Big B replies, “No, not at all. I never expected the show to come up to the seventh edition. The show first ran on Star TV just for three months. Usually for a game show to have a successful run is just impossible. But this show has run for almost 250 episodes which is quite an achievement.”

The actor reveals his distress about the hard conditions the contestants have to face in their daily lives and shares, “I do get troubled by the prevailing poverty in our country. I was literally shocked to hear from a contestant that he just wanted to win Rs20,000 merely because he wanted to repair the leaking roof of his hut as at times he has to tolerate the rains pouring in by holding an umbrella in his hand.

“And also he had to clear off the telephone bills for the phone calls he had made to participate in ‘KBC’.”

He adds, “On personal front too, I sometime help the people in distress but I would not like to make a mention. Also, when a contestant sits on the ‘Hot Seat’, he experiences a sigh of relief thinking that now is the time to answer the questions right and thus win the huge amount just to fulfill his needs of living.”

Talk about the tradition of meeting old contestants and Big B shares, “So many times contestants are called back. Meeting them and finding a change in their knowledge level makes me feel happy.

“I meet people and get to know their personal agonies they may be facing. It is really touching to know the problems that the common people face. Whatever we can do in our capacity, we should try to do for them.”

On the difference between working on television and films, he says, “Definitely, on television we have to be impromptu. As it is said, a moment’s silence for any show will depict that the show is bad. When something from the contestant’s sharing touches our heart, we need to reciprocate to it. So, being on our toes throughout the show is very essential.”

Talking about his multi-lingual capacities, he reveals, “Yes, I was born in Allahabad and it is the environment during the childhood that matters. My father would always recite poems to us and on a day-to-day basis he would also enrich our knowledge.

“Whatever I know about Sanskrit, I have picked the language from my father. However, I always ask most people to keep reading the newspaper. Newspapers written in different languages are perfect grammatically, increase the vocabulary and knowledge as well.”

Lastly he adds, “I never interfere in the making of the game show. But yes, at times I do share my views to the production house as to how we need to discipline ourselves and also have patience while encountering any production hiccups.”

We can only cross our fingers that the icon continues his magic run of the popular gameshow.

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